Archives

Abortion in war time: How women break taboos in Yemen
by International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion
May 23, 2017

E ensures that her children prevent anyone from entering the room at her family home. Then, when the door is closed, she begins to speak quietly and nervously about why she had an abortion earlier this year.

At the age of 39, E already has five children, the youngest of whom is 18 months old. Her family, like millions of other Yemenis, have been left destitute by the two-year war…

“My brain told me it was wrong to exhaust myself and make my husband suffer to provide a new baby with its needs,” E says. “We hardly have enough for our current children. If one of them is sick, we try our best to treat their sickness at home, as we cannot pay for hospitals. The economic crisis does not allow us to have more children.”…